The Second Most Famous New Yorker Cover Ever

The New Yorker has aggrieved its lib readership with a cover depicting what every right-thinking righty knows to be the real Obama and Michelle.  The gist of the lefty plaint - sure the cover is meant as a satire of right wing paranoia, but what if the great unwashed don't get the joke?

Jeff Goldstein comments on failed satire.  Kevin Drum comes close to a point - a gutsier satire would have attributed this right wing vision to John McCain or Karl Rove or Rush Limbaugh or SOMEONE.  (Michelle favors "They" for her fantasy accusations).

And my question relates to the most famous New Yorker cover of all, which shows a US map of Ninth Ave., Tenth Ave., the Hudson River, flyover country, and the Pacific.  Is that cover a brilliant satire of every New Yorker's narrow world view, or a badge of honor that more or less accurately captures the proper place of the greatest city in the world vis a vis the rest of the US?  I don't think the answer is obvious.  In fact, I will be so bold as to opine that there is not one "right" answer - folks who love New York may miss the mockery that is immediately evident to New York haters.

Which is the peril of satire that is not far enough out there.

Comments

[kim]

Hey, what are Nehru and Angela Davis doing up there?
=========================

[MayBee]

I don't really see Drum's point:

If artist Barry Blitt had some real cojones, he would have drawn the same cover but shown it as a gigantic word bubble coming out of John McCain's mouth — implying, you see, that this is how McCain wants the world to view Obama. But he didn't. Because that would have been unfair.

But that would have made the satire about McCain, when he isn't the target of the jab. "The people" that think these things of Obama are.
Adding McCain as the voice would then have made the cartoon a jab at the people that actually think McCain is saying such things about Obama. Perhaps people like Kevin Drum.
Maybe McCain would have thought it unfair, but he undoubtedly has thicker skin than Obama. The isn't cojenes, the problem is Drum's addition would have made it a bad illustration for the point they were making.

[cathyf]

SO IT JUST STRUCK ME AS FUNNY that supporters of Barack "I'm really not a Muslim" Obama are now getting upset about a cartoon.

posted at 02:02 PM by Glenn Reynolds

Need we say more????

[BumperStickerist]

just to combine New Yorker magazine memes -

are we sure that Barry Blitt isn't actually a dog?

-

[Thomas Collins]

Kim has pointed to what's wrong with the cover. If the New Yorker wanted to satirize what to New Yorker folks would be the "clinging to religion and guns" crowd, a cover picture of an aging leftist and a deceased leader of a nonaligned country doesn't do it.

I wonder if B57O gets the irony of the fact that aging washed up leftist Baby Boomers are the ones most likely to buy into the "if you are against Barack, you are racist and xenophobic" line. Here is B57O promoting himself as a change agent while serving as a reason for the over the hill Summer of Love crowd to recall their glory days fighting oppression in the muddy haze of Woodstock.

[larwyn]

Google has now deleted all references to posts which contain SCREENSHOTS OF OBAMA'S COLA!!!

Always chasing after you guys, see links in Atlas latest...
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/07/mystery-clarifi.html

[sbw]

Does this make Eustace Tilly the third most famous New Yorker cover -- or does he not count because he appears every anniversary?

[PaulL]

As a few people have mentioned: The article itself is devastating as it shows Obama as a Chicago politician instead of the Messiah.

The furor over the cover is thus a DISTRACTION from the content of the article.

Has Obama had to say even one word about the content of the article?

[Neo]

As Spock once said .. humor, it’s a difficult concept

The satire or irony is in the eye of the beholder.

Just like that negative TV coverage of Ronald Reagan that, when you turned off the sound, looked like beautiful campaign commercials, the cleverness of the New Yorker is lost on those who will never read the words, but are left to only see the cover, which, it seems, is whatever you want it to be.

[PrestoPundit]

And to think. I had assumed the cover was a dead on satire of out of touch New Yorkers and the idiotic things these leftist bubble people believe flyover Americans "know" about Obama.

[BobS]

The Obama's....methinks they protest too much methinks

[Sue]

Isn't the New Yorker a liberal rag?

[SWarren]

OMG!!
Westboro slimeys plan to protest Tony Snow funeral.
LUN

[DrJ]

Isn't the New Yorker a liberal rag?

You think? I'd call that a gross understatement.

My own opinion is that the New Yorker did the cover just to get people talking. It simply has not been the same since Tina Brown ruined it in the mid 1990s. Their circulation probably reflects their decline.

I still read it to see the latest left talking points. It beats reading a lefty blog.

And the cartoons are still great.

[Forbes]

I think PrestoPundit (above) has it right:

A "satire of out of touch New Yorkers and the idiotic things these leftist bubble people believe flyover Americans 'know' about Obama."

Or take a distillation of MayBee's above post:

In an illustration: a thought bubble emanating from Kevin Drum containing "a gigantic word bubble coming out of John McCain's mouth — implying, you see, that this is how McCain wants the world to view Obama."

[larwyn]

Georgetown gets in on the act with
REJECTED NEW YORKER COVERS;

http://www.collegeotr.com/georgetown_university/rejected_new_yorker_covers_9944

[Rick Ballard]

I hope that readers here take the time to read the piece by Ryan Lizza that Team Obama desperately hopes you will ignore. Karl provides a very good Cliff Notes version but I would add a secondary comment.

The Lizza piece is a counterpart to Jackson's threat against Obama. The whole race baiter/poverty pimp racket depends upon the "leaders" ability to enthrall the inhabitants of the prog fiefs upon which they depend for sustenance. The Lizza piece is just a tad too clear concerning the slumlord/poverty pimp connection and the fact that Obama was selling out his thralls/constituents right out of the starting blocks. He's neither alone nor unusal (vide Rangel, four rent controlled apartments) but Lizza's piece makes it crystal clear that the person whom Obama truly wished to help above all others was Obama - from Day 1, Hour 1.

The article also makes clear the reason why the race baiter establishment backed (and backs) Clinton. If Obama actually takes the nominations, every thrall and serf in every prog fief in the United States stands to lose the "they owe me" which provides the excuse for not getting up and getting out.

The cover is entertaining but the article is actually far more interesting. RW ain't quite dead yet.

[Jim Rhoads aka vnjagvet]

Well, JOMers, looks to me like Clinton has hired Rove, and they've infiltrated the New Yorker.

Rick has it dead on. This ain't over. In the afternoon, I heard "Heidi", a Clinton supporter, hopefully voice the "open convention" strategy "...just like FDR in 1932" (or words to that effect) to a skeptical Fox newsie. What about Clinton's concession and support of Obama, she was asked. Response:

Let's just give her the option to turn it down!!!

[Neo]

the truth is that this was an example where we had some poor phrasing in the speech

.. and so goes the need for Jerusalem to remain Israel's undivided capital.

Let's stop the merry-go-round here .. and call this what it is.

Obama is a politician .. who lies when it suits him.

[Jane]

I don't think it is over either, and I'll bet that the "right wing" Obama is blaming for that cartoon can be traced directly to the Hillary wing.

Radio Update. I met with someone who has a radio show on blog radio (which I had not heard of). She offered to co-host a show with me so I can learn the ropes. She's a lesbian liberal so the sparks will fly.

Any ideas will be gratefully accepted. I'm planning to start with perqbusters if I can master the research.

[clarice]

energy,Jane..

[hit and run]

When Barack Obama is president, you won't have 8 white guys competing in the MLB All Star Home Run Derby.

[larwyn]

breaking!!

Are they throwing out the insig. to cover for other details. This one he can blame his lies on DEAD MOTHER or white grandmother.

http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/07/obama-a-bastard.html

ATLAS::::

Obama, a bastard?
Obama forced to admit he is illegitimate? How does this impact the campaign? Does this tie in to the birth certificate manipulations .............. ? Never a dull moment in Oybombaland.

Andy Martin exposes Barack Obama's parents were never married

Barack Obama panics: Andy Martin's book forces Obama to admit he is illegitimate hat tip trk

(NEW YORK)(July 14, 2008) Legendary Chicago Internet columnist and Obama author Andy Martin will hold a New York news conference Monday, July 14th to drop the first of several bombs on the Obama campaign: Obama is illegitimate and his parents were never married.

For the past four years one man has made Obama miserable: Chicago writer Andy Martin. Martin's accurate original article is cited as the source of later rumors concerning Obama's Islamic family roots. Martin has relentlessly and accurately investigated lies.

"Obama knew we were working the 'illegitimate' story, and we were preparing a series of news conferences in conjunction with my book Obama: The Man Behind The Mask," Martin will state. "The Obama campaign also knew we were planning a lawsuit over his illegitimate birth. So they tried to use Obama's wife to do damage control. It was one of the most cowardly gestures in American political history.

[...]

"Barack Obama, Senior, and Anne Dunham never married. Obama knows this fact. This is also why he keeps his white grandmother a virtual prisoner; she knows too, and she won't lie".

"Through the past several decades Obama has pretended he 'didn't know' the facts about his illegitimate birth. He thought he could get away with the big lie. And he almost did get away with it. But we kept digging. And we are still digging. We have more to come."

[Sue]

Jane,

Awesome. I don't have any ideas, other than your stage name. Jane Bean. You go girl!

[larwyn]

Atlas also has this on Fannie & Freddie
http://atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs/2008/07/fannie-mae-and.html

FANNIE MAE AND FREDDIE MAC LAVISHED $$$ ON JESSE BLACKMAIL JACKSON
And they want the American taxpayer to bail them out? I would put them out (to pasture). Who is looking our for us? Who is watching our taxpayer dollars? Your taxpayer dollars for extortion! Now I have to bail them out? Why? They failed. Next.

NLPC Blasts Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for Lavishing Contributions on Jesse Jackson as Companies Near Collapse

FALLS CHURCH, Va., --

[Sue]

Larwyn,

I don't think anyone should touch that with a ten foot pole. The sympathy factor will be huge.

[JM Hanes]

I'm sorry, but what's not gutsy about this satire? Aside from suggestions like Drum's, which would alter the entire storyline, what on earth would going further look like?

What the Drum corps are really objecting to is a cover that offends the sensibilities of Obama supporters instead of explicitly attempting to offend and embarrass those whom it purports to be about - because, of course, the rubes who think it's all true won't get the satire. They're really just complaining that the New Yorker didn't make it crystal clear who the butt of this joke is supposed to be.

[Porchlight]

Stirring the pot even more because I can't resist...this DailyKos diary supposedly has the dirt on the rest of Jesse Jackson's "hot mike" comments about Obama.

Warning: bleeped in appropriate places, but writing is still only semi-literate, seeing as it's Kosland. There are comments but I was scared to go in there.

I'm skeptical but it's pretty incendiary if true.

[Neo]

So this make Obama a "mistake"

I bet Glen Greenwort would agree.

[cathyf]

C'mon, Obama's entire campaign is his autobiography, and his autobiography is being abandoned by his father. Dreams of My Father is basically about his parents not being married. "Obama a bastard" is something that they are trying to hide? I'm not buying it. Now, if his birth certificate says that his father is some dark-skinned hawaiian, still living in some hovel in Honolulu, and he's not related to any Kenyans at all, now THAT would be something to hide. Even that's just a maybe, though -- if Barack Obama, Jr believed that he was the son of Barack Obama, Sr because his mother told him so, then no one is going to blame him for believing her.

[Neo]

Now I read that there is some guy, Andy Martin, saying Obama's mom and dad never married.

I find it hard to believe that this went un-reported if true, so I doubt it.

[Sue]

I can't believe Obama called ICE agents terrorists.

[clarice]

Well, it's been known for a long time that (a) His father was married to someone else at the time he was born (b) there was no record anywhere of their marriage or divorse. So, I assumed for a long time his parents had never married.
And?..................IOW what's the big surprise?

[centralcal]

I agree, that Barry's parent's being married or not, is really a nothing burger.

The damaging stuff about Barry is his own positions (ever shape shifting) and his associations (past and present).

I like the New Yorker cover on several levels, mostly because I think it captures Michelle so well.

Still waiting, I see, for Barry to release his June $ numbers! Interesting that his campaign is begging (practically) for contributions.

[hit and run]

Sue:
I can't believe Obama called ICE agents terrorists.

In the Obama administration the terrorist ICE agents would be replaced by a civilian national security force.

[cathyf]

Exactly, clarice -- if Obama's parents weren't married, that would be his fault? He has run on a pretty consistent platform as an advocate of children whose parents weren't married. In fact, his articulate advocacy, even to the point of discomfitting the traditional black poverty-pimp victimologists, is the one thing about his candidacy that is most admirable.

[JM Hanes]

centralcal:

The deadline for reporting the June figures is July 20th -- which seems about perfect for a convenient weekend release -- so I'm not holding my breath for any numbers before Friday.

[Jane]

Clarice,

How does one make "energy" interesting? I can get it in via perqbusters - "if congress had to pay for gas how quickly do you think we'd pass a bill allowing domestic drilling?"

Sue, the Boston Red Sox announce is a guy names Carl Beane. He lives around here. He'll think I'm related or something. But if we do it on blog radio you can all call in and make me sounds smart.

I don't think it matters one whit if Obama is a bastard. 90% of the black community are bastards. That will just give him street cred. Of course it matters that he lies, if he has stated that his parents married. Knowing him he will say he didn't know and break down and whine that the VRWC did it to him.

[Sue]

Hit,

Does Obama think all the criminals who arrested by our law enforcement agencies don't have families?

[Porchlight]

According to several articles like this one from Time, they were married February 2, 1961, but Obama has called the details "murky."

Just a couple of days ago Michelle Obama said that Obama's mother "was very young and very single" when she had him.

So, yeah, maybe the whole birth certificate thing revolves around this. Not a big deal to my mind, but covering it up isn't very wise either.

[Sue]

Jane,

You don't need me to sound smart. And tell Mr. Beane to change his name or something.

[clarice]

If this author wants to push that theme no one can stop him --but not a single responsible person should repeat it.

[Ann]

If you go to Neo's link there was suppose to be a big media event TODAY:

NEWS CONFERENCE DETAILS:
WHO:
Internet Columnist-Author/Editor/Andy Martin

WHAT:
Andy Martin discloses Barack Obama's parents were never married and Obama has concealed his illegitimate birth for decades

WHERE:
909 Third Avenue, public sidewalk in front of FDR Station, New York

WHEN: Monday, July 14, 1:00 P. M.

MEDIA CONTACT: (866) 706-2639

TO PURCHASE BOOK: http://www.OrangeStatePress.com

ANDY E-MAIL: AndyMart20@aol.com

-----

If you call the number it says Hi and leave a detailed message.

Calling Obama a bastard (even though some of us do already for other reasons) will get you the same carp they say about Republicans all the time and will hurt McCain. If they can prove he lied, well, we already know he does that daily. There are bigger lies to go after than his birth, like what he really thought after 9/11. (Sweetness and Light)

[clarice]

Jane--I think people's esars are finally up on energy now that gas costs so much--and this winter heating. Start with the local stuff--get in the folks who were trying to hard to get those windmills .(And dig up some Kerry-Kennedy stuff about alternate energy BEFORE the windmill project that MIGHT affect their views was proposed.)

And then there's Duval Patrick .

[BobS]

If his mom and dad werent married, that matters how? I really think not much. At any rate, I still wonder why it seems that Obama seems to be less than forthcoming. If his parents weren't married, that would never have been a big deal from the beginning, so why are we spending alot of energy here? Was it that he was born in Kenya? I hope not as I cannot even imagine the nightmare we'd have on our hands.

[Soylent Red]

Barack Obama's parents were never married and Obama has concealed his illegitimate birth for decades

Aside from Obamessiah's blinding arrogance, this is completely meaningless in this day and age. I would submit that it improves his credentials in some spheres.

The guy really is a monument to liberal social engineering.

[Sue]

My husband is 57 years old and didn't know until his biological father died last year that his parents married but never lived together. Anything he said prior to last year, he thought was the truth because that is what they told him. It wasn't until court documents were needed that he found out the truth. And his mother still won't tell him anything. She claims it is a lie, even though the documents say otherwise. I can't hold anything Obama's parents or grandparents did against Obama. If he was a bastard, as my husband was, not legally, but technically, so what? The sins of the fathers and all that...

[hit and run]

No the issue of whether his parents were married is nothing to make an issue of.

But it is interesting in light of Barack's view toward marriage when he was going steady with Michelle... (or whatever those crazy kids were calling it back then, way back in the ... 90s)

[Soylent Red]

or whatever those crazy kids were calling it back then, way back in the ... 90s

Hittin' dat.

[centralcal]

True, Sue . . . way too many families have these stories for the children, that become the folklore that they believe well into their adult years before ever learning the truth.

Barack (or Barry) and Michelle have so many more negative points about them personally.